Fast ion studies of ion cyclotron heating in the PLT tokamak

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5079411

Hammett, G W

The most promising method for heating a tokamak reactor plasma to thermonuclear temperatures is the use of waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies. Measurements of the fast non-Maxwellian ions produced by this heating method provide a wealth of information about the physics of wave heating. Previous experiments have demonstrated that ion-cyclotron heating tends to produce energetic ions whose banana tips are near the resonance layer. Cyclotron heating causes this resonance localization by imparting perpendicular energy to particles, and by imparting more energy to particles that spend more time in the resonance layer. A bounce-averaged quasilinear operator, which property includes these effects, was implemented in a Fokker-Planck code in order to make detailed comparisons with measurements. Good agreement is found with data from a horizontally-scanning, mass-resolving, neutral particle analyzer, although the assumed RF power deposition profile needed to match the data is broader than expected in some cases. Alternatively, radial diffusion of fast ions (which is ignored in the code) may make the RF power profile appear to be broader than it is. In addition to the usual charge exchange measurements of hydrogen and deuterium, double charge exchange measurements of /sup 3/He were made.

• Research Organization: Princeton Univ., NJ (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5079411
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
PLT DEVICES
ICR HEATING
BANANA REGIME
FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION
ION DRIFT
QUASILINEAR PROBLEMS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
HEATING
HIGH-FREQUENCY HEATING
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PLASMA HEATING
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
TOKAMAK TYPE REACTORS
TRAPPING
700101* - Fusion Energy- Plasma Research- Confinement
Heating
& Production